Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (novel)

This article is about the 1946 novel. For the film, see Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House.

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
1st edition cover
Author(s)	Eric Hodgins
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Comedy novel
Publisher	Simon & Schuster
Publication date	1946
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	237 pp (hardback edition)
ISBN	NA

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House is a 1946 comedy novel written by Eric Hodgins and illustrated by William Steig, describing the vicissitudes of buying a home in the country. It originally appeared as a short story in the April 1946 issue of Fortune magazine.

It was adapted as a movie of the same name, released in 1948, which starred Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, and Melvyn Douglas. Later two radio adaptations were also performed, with Grant in the leading role.

Plot summary

The book begins in fictional Landsdale County, Connecticut, where Jim and Muriel Blandings are being shown an old farmhouse by a real estate agent. Blandings, a successful New York advertising executive, and his wife want to leave their tiny Midtown apartment, where they live with their two daughters. They fantasize that the farmhouse will meet their needs. After some negotiation, they buy the house.

They soon learn that the house is structurally unsound and must be torn down. They design the perfect home in the country, imagining an idyll, but they are quickly beset by construction troubles, temperamental workmen, skyrocketing bills, threatening lawyers, and difficult neighbors. The Blandings' dream house soon threatens to be the nightmare that undoes them.

Hodgins wrote a sequel, Blandings Way, published in 1950.

The short story and novel were based on the author Eric Hodgins's experience with buying property and building a house in the Merryall area of the Litchfield County, Connecticut, town of New Milford. His former house, which still stands, sold in August 2004 for $1.2 million.^[1]

Characters

• Mr. James Blandings – advertising executive
• Mrs. Muriel Blandings – his wife
• Mr. William "Bill" Cole – the Blandings' lawyer and friend

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

In addition to the 1948 film, the novel was adapted as two radio plays, both starring Cary Grant. It was the basis of the 2007 film called Are We Done Yet?.

References

1. ^ "Comparables", LoopNet